From Bybit to Coinbase: 2025's Biggest Crypto Hacks and Breaches
Crypto firms faced a record $2.72 billion in theft this year as attackers expanded their reach across major exchanges and DeFi platforms.
In brief
- Total crypto hack losses reached $2.72 billion in 2025, surpassing last year’s record despite subdued market conditions.
- The Bybit breach in February marked the year’s largest exploit, with North Korean actors suspected of stealing up to $1.5 billion.
- Major exchanges and DeFi platforms, including Coinbase, Cetus Protocol, Nobitex, UPCX, BtcTurk, and Upbit, reported significant compromises across the year.
This year was a record for hacks in the crypto sector, with over $2.72 billion stolen, according to data from TRM Labs.
Yes, with depressed crypto prices getting investors down, 2025 was a particularly bad year for exploits—even after 2024 broke records.
The year got off to a terrible start with a $1.5 billion loss in February after North Korean hackers targeted centralized exchange Bybit in the most significant crypto exploit in history.
That set the tone for the rest of the year, with "even more organized and professionalized" crimes, TRM Labs told Decrypt.
"Attacks are faster, better coordinated, and far easier to scale than they were in previous cycles," TRM's Global Head of Policy Ari Redbord said. "In 2025, we also saw the continued expansion of North Korea's IT worker schemes, which further added to the operational sophistication behind many campaigns."
Let's dive in and take a look at the biggest hacks and breaches of 2025.
Bybit: $1.5 billion
The year got off to the worst possible start when hackers—believed to be from North Korea—targeted crypto exchange Bybit and made off with between $1.4 and $1.5 billion in Ethereum and related tokens.
The exploit shocked the industry not only because of its size, but also because the funds were supposedly held in cold, multi-signature wallets—the safest way to store digital assets securely.
Multi-signature wallet provider Safe said the heist stemmed from a compromised developer laptop. An investigation later found that a high-level Safe developer's workstation was compromised on February 4 when it interacted with a malicious application.
Coinbase: Up to $400 million
Coinbase, America's biggest crypto exchange and one of the most well-known and trusted brands in the space, dropped a bomb in May when it revealed a data breach.
Criminals had sent the company a letter demanding $20 million in Bitcoin in exchange for stolen customer details. Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong then offered the same bounty to help catch the criminals.